The Tristitial is the Internet's first multi-advertiser ad format. Like the other multi-advertiser ads to be introduced by snap2eyes, the Tristitial offers web publishers and ad networks many substantial benefits:
- ad revenue and gross profit margins become significantly higher,
- display ads become easier to sell to advertisers because of more affordable pricing,
- the amount of ad space inventory that remains unsold substantially decreases, and
- cost-per-click (CPC) results improve because there are three times as many banners that can induce a click.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tristitials Enable a Publisher or Ad Network to Sell the Same Ad Space to Triple the Number of Advertisers
Typically, an advertiser pays for its online campaigns on a "cost per thousand" impressions (or CPM) basis. Whenever an online ad promoting such advertiser is served to an ad space, the ad server decreases the remaining impressions left for such online ad by a single impression. A single impression is normally associated with a single advertiser. However, a multi-advertiser ad enables several advertisers to share a single impression. Thus, each CPM unit that is purchased for a multi-advertiser ad enables several advertisers to display their respective banners 1,000 times in the same thousand impressions served to the same ad space, and the publisher or ad network can collect ad revenue from each advertiser appearing in the multi-advertiser ad. In this way, a single impression is shared by multiple advertisers, and consequently can be priced in a way that lowers CPM costs for the advertisers while still increasing total CPM ad revenue for the publisher or ad network.
The Tristitial is a multi-advertiser ad that empowers a publisher or ad network to exploit an existing online ad space inventory more profitably by serving three times as many advertisers to each ad space at a 40-70% discount on the "cost per thousand" ad impressions (CPM) paid by each advertiser.
To understand the powerful pricing benefits offered by the Tristitial (and any other multi-advertiser ad), consider a simple example in which a publisher or ad network ordinarily charges an advertiser a CPM of $30 to display a banner ad on an online ad space. Suppose that, instead of providing this ad space to a single advertiser, the publisher or ad network uses a Tristitial multi-advertiser ad to sell the ad space to three different advertisers, and charges each advertiser a CPM of only $15. While the discounted CPM is 50% of the normal price, there are three times as many advertisers paying this reduced price. Thus, the same ad space that would have earned the publisher or ad network just $30 in ad revenue from 1,000 impressions sold to one advertiser (paying the non-discounted CPM) now generates total ad revenue of $45 from the three advertisers sharing the same 1,000 impressions and paying the discounted CPM.
Moreover, because the publisher or ad network can now offer each of the three banner ads in the Tristitial for half as much (i.e., a CPM of just $15 instead of $30), it becomes much easier for the publisher or ad network to find an advertiser that will buy a banner ad for any particular ad space.
Tristitials Offer More Flexible Pricing Options
Publishers and ad networks may wish to price each banner in a Tristitial differently, on the view that the first, second, and third banner positions in a Tristitial may each have a different display value to advertisers.
The chart below analyzes the advantages and disadvantages associated with each of the three banner positions in a Tristitial. The analysis is based on cognitive psychological studies of memory1 and perception2, and on the fact that Tristitials use the following, eye-catching form of animation to indicate the transition from one banner to the next: the division of a banner into horizontal or vertical tiles that smoothly and gradually flip into the next banner. Internet users can be expected to react in certain ways to such animated transitions, and these reactions may become even more likely as the Tristitial becomes more commonly deployed and recognized.
| Position |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| First Banner |
The Internet user is least likely to leave the web page before a Tristitial displays the first banner.
The proven effects of primacy and recency in memory and recall mean that the first banner occupies a more "memorable position" in the Tristitial and is thus more likely to be remembered, if the first banner is viewed first.
If the Internet user catches only a momentary glimpse of the first banner right before it transitions into the second banner, he or she will likely realize that the Tristitial animation cycle has finished only after the transition from the third banner to the first banner has commenced. In such a case, the Internet user is almost certain to see the first banner at least once and probably twice.
Even if the Internet user notices the Tristitial only after the second or third banner has been displayed, such user is likely to continue watching the Tristitial until the first banner appears because only then will it become clear that the animation cycle has finished and all of the banners in the Tristitial have been displayed.
|
The animated effects of the Tristitial begin only with the second banner, so the second banner may be the first one to capture the Internet user's attention if such user was not looking at the Tristitial when it was first served to the web page.
|
| Second Banner |
The animated effects of the Tristitial begin with the second banner, so the second banner may be the first one to capture the Internet user's attention if such user was not looking at the Tristitial when it was first served to the web page.
If the second banner is viewed first, the proven effects of primacy and recency in memory and recall mean that the second banner occupies a more "memorable position" in the Tristitial and is thus more likely to be remembered.
Even if the Internet user was looking at the Tristitial when the first banner was first served to the web page, if such user recognizes the ad unit as a Tristitial, he or she will probably be curious to see the second banner revealed before exploring other content on that web page, or leaving the web page altogether.
|
The proven effects of primacy and recency in memory and recall mean that the second banner is the least likely to be remembered, if it is the second out of the three banners to be viewed. However, the fact that second banner is actually the first to be animated may in some way offset the disadvantage of being displayed in the "more forgettable" second position.
|
| Third Banner |
If the third banner is viewed last, the proven effects of primacy and recency in memory and recall mean that the third banner occupies a more "memorable position" in the Tristitial and is thus more likely to be remembered.
|
The Internet user is most likely to leave the web page before a Tristitial displays the third banner.
However, if the Internet user views the web page long enough to notice the Tristitial animation, such user is likely to watch the Tristitial long enough for the animation cycle to be completed and the third banner to be displayed.
|
Publishers and ad networks are free to conduct their own studies and/or reach their own conclusions, and price each banner position in a Tristitial accordingly.
If, for example, a publisher or ad network believes that there is some marketing advantage to being displayed earlier rather than later in a Tristitial, the publisher or ad network may prefer to offer bigger CPM discounts to advertisers whose banners are displayed later in the Tristitial. The following is an illustration of a pricing scheme based on the assumption that an earlier banner placement in a Tristitial is better:
Instead of selling an online ad space for the normal $30 CPM to one advertiser, a publisher or ad network uses a Tristitial to sell the ad space to three advertisers, as follows:
- The advertiser displayed in the first Tristitial banner ad pays a CPM of $20, saving 33% on the regular CPM.
- The advertiser displayed in the second Tristitial banner ad pays a CPM of $15, saving 50% on the regular CPM.
- The advertiser displayed in the third Tristitial banner ad pays a CPM of $10, saving 66% on the regular CPM.
In any case, each publisher and ad network is free to decide for itself:
- whether to sell each of the three banners in a Tristitial for the same CPM, or for a different CPM, and
- whether to increase its profit margins (by offering smaller CPM discounts), or increase its sales volume and ad revenue (by offering greater CPM discounts).
Whatever publishers and ad networks may ultimately prefer, the dramatic pricing flexibility made possible by the Tristitial helps them to ensure that none of their ad space inventory remains unsold.
Tristitials Make the CPC Pricing Model More Profitable
A multi-advertiser ad like the Tristitial also makes the "cost per click" (CPC) pricing model more profitable for a publisher or ad network. Because Tristitials display three different banners in the same ad space that would ordinarily display only one banner, the odds that an Internet user will click on such ad space are effectively tripled, making the CPC model three times as likely to produce ad revenue for a publisher or ad network using Tristitials. Moreover, because Tristitials contain ad content from three different campaigns, they produce an inherently distinctive overall effect and are likely to make Internet users curious to see all of the banners in the Tristitial, thereby increasing the odds of a click. Finally, the Tristitial itself is animated, and thus effectively transforms each of the three constituent static banners into an eye-catching rich media ad. Hence, for several reasons, a Tristitial – like any other rich media ad – is much more likely than a static banner to capture the user's attention and lead to a click.
Publishers and Ad Networks Can Customize Tristitials in a Variety of Ways
When designing a Tristitial to be shared among three advertisers, the publisher or ad network uses the Rich Media Ad Factory™ (or RMAF™) Platform to customize:
- the ad unit size and animation speed of the Tristitial,
- the number of tiles comprising each of the three banners in the Tristitial,
- the gap between the tiles,
- the width and height of the tiles,
- the time during which each of the three banners will be displayed in the Tristitial,
- the orientation of the tiles (i.e., whether the tile lines that lead to a transition from one banner to the next are vertical or horizontal),
- the exact names of the click-through and click-target tags supported by the ad serving platform to be used, and
- after how many animation cycles (if at all) to include a pause/stop button that enables the Internet user to stop the Tristitial animation.
The Tristitial, like every other rich media ad template customized by the RMAF Platform, will have its own customization user interface that is similar to that of other ad templates. To view a sample RMAF customization interface, without registering to become an RMAF user, visit:
www.textpandable.com.
Technical Details About Tristitials
The intrinsic file size of a Tristitial is 20KB, and each banner can be up to 12KB large for the leaderboard ad unit (468x60 IMU), for a total maximum file size of 56KB. With other ad units each banner can be up to 20KB, for a total maximum file size of up to 80KB. RMAF users are allowed to create Tristitials whose file size exceeds the maximum size recommended by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) for a rich media ad of the same dimensions, but publishers and ad networks creating Tristitials should generally try to comply with the IAB size guidelines when accepting banners from Tristitial advertisers.
The Tristitial is compatible with Macromedia® Flash® Player version 6r65 or higher. However, an estimated 3% of Internet-connected computers either lack Macromedia Flash Player or have an outdated version. Thus, publishers and ad networks must designate a static image (also known as the "alternate image") that will be served to this small minority of Internet-connected computers. The advertiser who wishes to appear in the alternate image may be charged an additional 5% of the normal CPM (or any other amount). Or the alternate image may be allotted on a first-come, first-served basis (or by any other method) to any of the three advertisers. Ultimately, the publisher or ad network is free to decide how to allocate the alternate image.
For details regarding Tristitial tracking, reporting, and scheduling, please visit:
Tracking, Reporting, and Scheduling for the Multi-Advertiser Tristitial.
_________________________________